I am looking for some recommendations of pro type drivers (high efficiency) that perform relatively well in small cabinets. My ideal cabinet would be a 4 cubic foot space with two ten inch woofers and a tweeter. It would have an f3 of 40 hz and efficiency of 97 db or greater. I would appreciate it if anyone could recommend any drivers that might approximate the setup I have just described.

Look at the Eminence drivers. You will need to go somewhere else for the tweets unless you like compression drivers. A couple are made to add compression driver and horn on for coax. Think more along 99db for that I think. A 12" I am going to play with goes 40 to 10K which makes for a great two way. Small $$ too at <www.partsexpress.com>

Looks like you are helping me out with two of my posts, thanks.
Exactly what eminence driver are you working with? I have been modeling a bunch of them in WinISD and havn't been able to get much below 50hz without having insanely large cabinets.

I have also been looking into some of the peavey bass guitar cabinets. I have one that is a 4 X 10 cabinet and goes down to 30hz. It is not an extremely large cabinet for the amound of drivers it contains. Unfortunetly I have not been able to find a source of thier raw drivers anywhere, yet.

A larger woofer would allow low bass in that size of cabinet. Try a 12", or even a well damped 15. The Eminence Kappa Pro 15LF has an f3 of 46 in a 4.5 ft3 cabinet. How loud will you be playing these? (thinking Linkwitz transform w/ small sealed box)
Cannot go wrong with eminence.
-andy

It uses the JBL 2226 15" driver. At Parts Express the cost is about $320 ea.

The JBL docs are quite thorough and include a distortion rating of under 1% up to 60 watts. This is pretty stunning for a speaker.

Now I know many pro drivers have low distortion due to large diameter and low excursion, but how do the Kappa pro 15 or 15LF
measure up? Sounds like you guys reALLY LIKE 'EM. and they cost about $115 ea. at PE. Are they a bargain? or of a bit lesser quality? or both?

Another project I am considering uses the Audax PR380M2 15" pro driver. Any comparisons to the Kappas?

Ok Ok I'll compare the specs, but the distortion usually isn't mentioned, or am I missing it?

I would be quite happy with bass down to about 40 hz.
Will the Kappa pro 15LF pro driver sound "cleaner" and "faster" or BETTER
than a 12" ultrahigh xmax sub driver at the same hz? I will be crosing them over at about 200hz

The efficiency is a plus at the moment, but later I will probably use an active crossover and separate amp (my Hafler 220 I am currently using as a doorstop), so let's not discuss the efficiency advantage.

The kappa has an Fs of 46 Hz, pretty high for such a big woofer. This contributes to its high efficiency. Yes, it is a bargain and a half! Very well built, it's solid! For that sub project, a lower Fs would be nice. The speaker would need a big box to get low, you could put it in 8 ft3 box and get it down to around 30...I am using them in a big 3 way sound reinforcement speaker, crossing around 500.
If I were to use them in a hi fi application, I would cross much lower. Below 100.
If efficiency is not so important, I would use a similar driver with a lower Fs. I have been looking for this (a month ago after reading the sub project thread you mentioned!) and have had little luck. But, you could add mass to the cone. Anybody know anything about this? I could read up on it a little.

I think a 15 would sound better than a high xmax 12" at high volume.
-andy

The Kappa P12, which is pretty much the same as the 15"
Same magnet and coil sizes, flatter curve,
is still 98db efficirent, and has a resonant freq of 37 hz, which is better than the 15 at 47hz I hope not a misprint.

The eminence 12" has a Qts value of .24, if my memory is correct. That is a bit low for what we're doing. I'm looking for .35 to .45. Those values will give us a better bass/box volume ratio. Unless we take a well damped(low Qts) driver and put it in a bigger box, cross it over just before midbass, and give it a huge amp. The PLH's have very low Q's too.

I'm still looking for a 15" woofer with a total Q around .4 with an Fs around 30 and a Vas around 5 ft3.